The Alice Clock

Summary

Medium: Custom Python software using the NLTK library

Status: Complete (2012)

Presentation/Publication history: NEASA Digital Revolutions Conference (2012)

Description

The Alice Clock is a playful demonstration of how even simple natural language processing can be used to highlight interesting structure in literary works. The piece is based on a circular poem: a set of twelve words arranged in a circle that can be read in a grammatically sensible way from any starting point. These words all appear at least a handful of times in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

As the piece evolves, each word in the circular text is replaced by a word that functions in a similar way (that is, appears in a similar context) in Carroll’s work, without disrupting the circular grammar. Thus, the word “white” might be replaced by “red,” since “the white queen” and “the red queen” are both phrases that regularly appear in Carroll’s work. Other, more surprising replacements include “slips” for “rules” and “sorrow” for “sand.”

As these replacements continue, the text wanders farther and farther from its original sense but retains its circular structure. Occasionally, a word will return to its original value after completing a cycle of substitutions. For instance, “red” might go to “large,” then “great,” then “little,” then “passionate,” and back to “red.” Whenever this happens, an “Alice Minute” has passed, and the clock chimes accordingly. If the entire circular text returns to its original form, an “Alice Hour” has passed.

Even this rather silly, whimsical setup reveals interesting structure in Carroll’s use of language (as well as the constraint imposed by the original circular poem). While Alice Minutes happen about once every cycle of twelve substitutions, Alice Hours are vanishingly uncommon (in fact, one is unlikely to occur in the lifetime of our solar system). For other texts, such cycles are either much more or much less common, and “Minutes” may be more or less clustered.

By drawing attention to this linguistic structure (rather than say narrative arc or character development), The Alice Clock highlights aspects of Carroll’s text that undoubtedly affect reader experience but which rarely rise to the level of conscious experience. In this way, it encourages a more nuanced appreciation of certain aspects of literary craft.

To View

Video documentation of The Alice Clock is available below: